a giant tree was no match fr storm number four..crashingn and giving the family >> your realtime captioner: linda marie macdonald. well, a giant tree no match for a storm. number 4 crashing down and giving that family inside a rude awakening this morning. good afternoon, everyone. i'm frank mallicoat. delays on the road and in the air all thanks to a new round of rain here in the bay area and now some are cleaning up the mess that was left behind. cbs 5 reporter anne makovec is in san francisco with a family that's feeling lucky today. >> reporter: while it is bad here at home, it could have been much worse. crews are right now in the process of cleaning up after this massive tree fell on the home. >> i was asleep. i woke up and there was a tree in my house. >> reporter: it was much worse than the alarm clock at 7:30 this morning. this 100-foot cypress tree snapped and fell on this home on russian hill crashing through the roof of the master bedroom. >> four feet close as my bed

and i wouldn't be standing here talking to you right now. so i'm blessed. >> reporter: a neighbor got a rude awakening, too. >> i just heard the most massive crash that you could ever imagine. >> reporter: then she looked out of her window. >> then a saw a wall of water i guess that came off the tree after it hit the house. >> reporter: the tree also richard down a power line. >> it's dangerous. >> reporter: a neighbor happens to be part of a neighborhood group that's been campaigning for six months to get all utility lines in the area moved underground. >> this demonstrates -- this is an extremely unfortunate events for many individuals on the hill. >> reporter: for no one more so than scott, but he feels fortunate today. just two days ago he moved his bed from under the very spot where this tree fell. >> it is weird. it is weird. thank god that it didn't, you

know, come into the house more than it did. >> reporter: the couple and their three children all made it out with no injuries. as for damage to the house, no estimate yet on that. in san francisco, anne makovec, cbs 5. meanwhile, lawrence has been tracking the storm on high- def doppler radar all morning long. we have some green and yellow. >> it was a wild start to the day. in berkeley early on we had heavy rainfall coming down. that was what was happening all around the bay area early on. today of course this just adding to some very impressive totals from the previous storms. but this one not as strong still over an inch of rain in the north bay in mount venado. santa rosa about an inch over an inch in san francisco and almost that in oakland. mount umunum that has had over 16" of rainfall over the past few storms just over half inch there but we are still not done. you can see a lot of yellows to begin the day. that is quickly sliding south

now. still, we have pockets of pop- up showers. things beginning to wind down. we are hoping to dry out. will that happen? we'll have more on that coming up. back to you. >> thank you. now, most of the bay area did not need to see any more rain this morning. check out this parking lot. this is down in burlingame. drains just couldn't handle the barrage of water this morning backing up and leaving that monster puddle you see right there. of course, you can track the weather anytime with our live high-def doppler radar. just go to our website, cbssf.com/weather. you can check it out there. some heavy current during the past week of stormy weather snapped the cable that guides a solano county ferry. caltrans has suspended all the service now for the j-mac ferry so they can do some emergency repairs there. traffic is moving again after a head-on collision on the golden gate bridge this morning. traffic in both directions shut down during the height of the morning in commute. it took hours for traffic to clear out. chp tells cbs 5 at least eight

cars stalled while waiting for the accident to clear. many cars ran out of gas. three people suffered minor injuries in the crash but folks coming in from marin county had a tough commute today. homicide investigation under way in berkeley today after a woman was found shot to death in the street. cbs 5 reporter cate caugiran has the latest now from the east bay. >> reporter: berkeley police called this neighborhood safe. and what happened here in front of longfellow middle school not something officers see on a day- to-day. >> with this type of incident it is rare for us to have a homicide here in berkeley. >> reporter: just after 11:30 last night, police got a call about a fallen cyclist and a possible bike collision. but once they got on scene that wasn't the. >> the berkeley fire department responded quickly for medical assistance but they weren't able to help the victim and pronounced her dead at the scene. >> reporter: investigators were on scene late last night until the early-morning hours. roads were blocked, crime tape set up.

>> our detectives are still trying to sort through any evidence and any witness statements or any information they have to determine what the reasons were behind it. >> reporter: now the investigation continues. officers will be knocking on doors, talking to any witnesses who may have been in the area. this is a crime police say is uncommon to berkeley and this neighborhood. >> we don't have a lot of incidents like this in berkeley so anytime that something like this does happen, we are very concerned, you know, especially for the neighborhood and the community. >> reporter: officers say this is the city's fourth homicide of the year. the department is used to low numbers but they say even one is too many and hope the community will step forward with information. in berkeley, cate caugiran, cbs 5. more bay area headlines on this wednesday. it's beatings in downtown palo alto sent two women to the hospital sunday. investigators say one victim was sleeping near a sidewalk off university avenue when she was attacked early in the morning. the victim telling police the attacker wanted money, reached into her pockets before punching her in the head, face

and chest. police believe the same attacker was involved in another robbery attempt just a few blocks away. in piedmont a grin of stole christmas wreaths from the boy scouts christmas tree lot. thieves apparently climbed a fence to get into the tree lot last week and took about $1,000 worth of wreaths, garlands, tools and a heater. the tree lot provides about 20% of the annual budget for scouts in piedmont. and the music world is mourning the death of jazz pioneer dave brubeck. he died of heart failure this morning on his way to the hospital for a scheduled check- up. ♪ [ music ] >> you might remember him for his pop hits biggest of course take 5. brubeck would have turned 92 years old tomorrow. it was not a game that i will play. >> coming up, a game of cat and

mouse in washington as america waits for one side to finally give in. >> i'm danielle nottingham in washington. the president and lawmakers reach out to the business world to help sell their plans to avoid a fiscal crisis. >> plus a royal prank has buckingham palace livid and the queen's private hospital saying, sorry about that. >> and will watching others lose weight inspire to you get fit? probably not. when we come back. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

left the "fiscal cliff" tals all but frozen. so far - no een tensions over tax hikes and spending cuts have left the "fiscal cliff" talks all but frozen. so far no face-to-face meetings have been scheduled between the democrats and republicans. cbs reporter danielle nottingham with the president's

push now to sell his plan to american businesses. >> reporter: president obama asked business leaders this morning to support his plan to prevent a fiscal crisis. >> let's allow higher rights to go up for the top 2%, that includes all of you, yes, but not in any way that's going to affect your spending, your lifestyles. >> reporter: if no deal is reached between democrats and republicans before the end of the year, taxes will go up for everyone and automatic spending cuts will kick in. the president wants bush-era tax breaks to expire for households making $250,000 or more. republicans are adamantly opposed to that. >> closing loopholes, especially on those who are wealthy, is a better way to raise this revenue than raising rates. >> reporter: republicans are also pressing their case with the public. house gop leaders invited small business owners to capitol hill for a meeting.

republicans argue that tax increases will cripple small businesses. and max olson agrees. olson opened his insurance agency this year. he says the uncertainty over a looming tax hike is holding up his plans to hire more employees. >> right now, i'm presently interviewing people as we speak. and i don't know what's going to happen in january to my tax rate. >> reporter: both sides have proposals on the table to steer clear of the "fiscal cliff." but so far, neither republicans nor democrats appear ready to blink when it comes to tax rates for wealthy americans. danielle nottingham, cbs news, washington. stanford is apparently the place to be if you are looking to launch a startup company. the first-ever university entrepreneurialship report raking the palo alto school number one. the rankings track companies founded by students. stanford on top followed by har record is, uc-berkeley did stanford, harvard, uc-berkeley.

the stanford hospital and clinics has been named one of the best in the nation for the fourth year in a row. the leapfrog group measures patient safety, quality of care and efficiency. the top hospitals are chosen from more than 1200 nationwide. in today's healthwatch, we have heard it's good but now a new study questions the health benefits of an ingredient that's found in red wine. resveratrol was thought to prevent diabetes, heart disease and cancer. but researchers in st. louis said it didn't help healthy middle-aged women. the ingredients may work in combination with other ingredients that are found in red wine. it's bad news for people who struggle with insomnia, the lack of shut-eye can double the risk of stroke. it amps up the body's fight or flight system which increase heart rate and blood pressure

which long-term consequences. lack of sleep is linked to depression, substance abuse and poor cognitive functioning. >> we're in trouble. this is a study in canada found watching weight loss tv shows may cause more harm than good. researchers found that people who watch the shows that depict obese people tryinglose weight were actually turned off to exercise instead of motivating them to work out. they think it may be because the show's depiction of exercise is so extreme. put down the cell phone and the breakfast sandwich. there is a new ban in south dakota, texting while driving becoming a primary offense. cops can pull you over for doing just that or eating, reading or doing makeup while driving. in south dakota, keep your eyes on the road >> i have done that. but i have seen people reading books. >> i know. stuck in traffic sometimes. >> unbelievable. >> page 2, page 3.

>> yeah. >> hey, this is kind of getting old. >> this rain stuff? >> this rain stuff. >> i think a lot of people feel like that. we are going to try to turn this bout around and bring you some sunshine but so far today lingering showers outside. high-def doppler radar showing you a pretty good storm system moving through early on. not the big rain event or strong winds like the previous storms. still a nice little soaker pushing through. scattered showers in hayward within the next five minutes or so. this is what we are going to see this afternoon. just hit-and-miss showers as the storm begins to wind down. but another nice storm making its way through california into the sierra nevada where they have picked up more rain and snow across the higher peaks. behind that still quit a few clouds so looks rather murky outside right now but dry over the bay bridge at this hour. the temperature is staying fairly cool to mild outside. 58 degrees in concord. 64 san jose. and 61 degrees in san francisco. still as we head throughout the afternoon i think the showers will be coming to and and then

some partial clearing possible maybe a couple of sunny breaks if we're lucky then tonight it will be partly cloudy, likely to see some patchy dense fog and that will be the main concern i think over the next few days as some of that tule fog developing in some of the interior valleys. dry weather ahead as high pressure is going to build in slowly but enough to send the jet stream further north and turn off the rain. so the future is looking dry just a few more leftover showers but today then things begin to settle down a bit traveling around the state 50s into the sacramento valley and scattered showers. rain at lake level at lake tahoe but the higher elevations are seeing snow. still this afternoon we could see rain but that should begin to dry out. overnight tonight, we'll start to clear out and then tule fog develops in some of the valleys here. that will likely keep some of the temperatures cool inland by tomorrow afternoon. but today we are looking at 64 degrees in san jose. 59 degrees in pacifica. about 61 in palo alto. and 61 degrees in union city. east bay numbers running up into the 60s as well.

a couple of lingering showers there. and in the north bay, things tapering off 50s and 60s for highs. over the next few days, high pressure building in slowly. temperatures are going to stay cool. looking nice, though, into the weekend as we'll start to warm up. mabel that offshore wind kicks in sunday and monday and maybe mid-60s and dry weather. >> nice to have a weekend. >> wouldn't that be something? >> with no rain. >> i think this weekend will be good. >> thank you. well, the prince and the princess have been pranked. did you hear about this? the private hospital housing the duchess duchess is the duchess of cambridge got a he upon call from someone who said they were the queen. >> reporter: prince william was back to the hospital to check on his wife. just hours after a caller claiming to be the queen managed to get her nurse on the phone.

>> hello, good morning. >> hello there... could i please speak to kate, please, my granddaughter? >> reporter: the australian deejays pulling the prank fooled their way past the operator and then tricked kate's nurse, as well. she revealed that the duchess was being treated for severe morning sickness had not thrown up during her shift. >> she has been getting some fluids. quite dehydrated when she came in. >> reporter: the nurse said kate was sleeping despite being in a strange bed. the deejay pretending to be prince charles, well, it's no palace, is it? >> when can you take me to the hospital, charles? >> when will it be all right to come down and see her, maybe in the morning or something, if that's okay? >> i would suggest anytime after 9:00 would be suitable. >> reporter: the hospital director has said he deplores the foolish prank and promised to investigate the breakdown in phone security. the call went on for several minutes. complete with the queen's fake

dog barking in the background. the radio host from the australian station apologized. they said they thought they would be disconnected as soon as the nurse heard their terrible accents. cbs news, london. >> how did the nurse fall for that? the accents were awful. >> i bet she got off the phone and told all her friends, the queen and charles just called! >> i can't believe that oh, my goodness! get a load of this. if you believe a prognosticating area cat, and many team do, then you can expect the royal baby to be, what? >> a prince? >> a prince. mr. nuts from fremont. >> not mr. nuts. >> mr. nuts predicted mitt romney's defeat in the election. >> he doesn't look very happy. >> he picked the right winner the last two super bowls. now he has picked blue over pink for the royal bundle of joy. mr. nuts makes his choice by picking litter boxes. it's very scientific. [ laughter ] >> this time, one had a blue bow, the other a pink. when nature called, mr. nuts

stepped inside so we can expect a new prince sometime. >> does he do weather? >> he might. [ laughter ] >> mr. nuts. >> think we have to leave this one behind. when we come back, you don't want to miss this. nasa releases some unbelievable photos of mother earth that no one has ever seen before. it's great stuff. stay right there. ,, ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing a brand new medicare prescription drug plan. it's called the aarp medicarerx saver plus plan from unitedhealthcare. and it's for people who want the lowest part d premium

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grocery store..

tony tantillo is taking us shopping today picking out the week's best buys at the grocery store. >> it's time for this week's best buys where we at fresh, stay healthy and save money. each and every week i walk the produce aisle and pick three items. but there's plenty of items to show you. juice oranges, you can eat them and juice them. loaded with juice and flavor. find them for about 25 cents each. beautiful gala apples, new crop, in the market. loaded with flavor and look how beautiful they are! you can find these gala apples for roughly around $1.49 a pound on certain local markets in their ads but some stores as high as 2.99. so check around. look at these grapefruit. i best buyed these about a month and a half ago. they're still beautiful. they're coming in even better priced. loaded with flavor. pink grapefruit from florida. you can find large ones now for around 99 cents each. so there you go.

this week's be buys. eat fresh, stay healthy. and save some money. i'm tony tantillo, your fresh grocer. ciao. ,, [ female announcer ] for those who love sweets, your season is here. let's just call it the baking time of year. you need special ingredients. you need the staples. that's a given. you need safeway sugar for just $1.97. and that magic thing that makes everyone want another -- only $2.99 for challenge butter. and when hands get messy, quite surely they'll say, "yum! wow! yay! what a sweeter holiday."

you won't take our future. aids affects us all. even babies. chevron is working to stop mother-to-child transmission. our employees and their families are part of the fight. and we're winning. at chevron nigeria, we haven't had a reported case in 12 years. aids is strong. aids is strong. but we are stronger.

and aids... ♪ aids is going to lose. aids is going to lose. ♪ for a certain drug could sae d more at a new discovery could change how breast cancer is treated. how tweaking the recommendation for a certain drug could save a lot of lives. that story and more coming up at 5:00. and what a wonderful world! check out these stunning never-

before-seen nasa images of earth. they were taken by satellite. the beautiful images spanning across africa to asia to antarctica are collected in a new nasa ebook called earth as art. it's 158 pages available in hard cover, electronically and as a free ipad application, as well. pretty cool. we have had a lot of rain and that means a lot of snow up in the sierra. so the ski resorts must be loving it. >> yeah. they are loving it. of course we had a winter weather advisory up there earlier. that's been taken down. still, the snow continuing to fall. your snow report, a few inches of snow in heavenly, snow likely to continue on and often through the afternoon. northstar has a good base, 18 to 60 inches, more snow today on the way. and it looks like some great skiing conditions this weekend if you want to head to squaw valley, the roads will be nice and wide open. getting lots of snow up there right now. how about this live shot for you? yeah, that's snow. mr. nuts would say that's definitely some snow. >> mr. nuts. >> he approved of that. >> enjoy your day. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com

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>> bill: so you've unilaterally decided that honesty is the best policy. >> rick: i lied to my sister. i had my reasons. >> bill: and now you have suddenly developed morals, huh? gee, i wonder why that is, "romeo." >> rick: does it really matter what my motives are for doing the right thing? >> bill: this is not a cub scout meeting. there is no right thing.